Dear Readers, hope all is well.
Before embarking on this new adventure, we’re truly glad to start this Review with a precious ACKNOWLEDGMENT😀: many thanks to LIFE IN FILM and ELLIOT JAMES LANGRIDGE for the amazing and impressive episode about Hugh Bonneville (2022).
Do you remember?
Well, that’s all. Now we’re ready to go!
‘C’est vraiment un chef-d’oeuvre. C’est réellement toi qui l’as fait?’ would exclaim Lady Violet
PLAYING UNDER THE PIANO: FROM DOWNTON TO THE DARKEST PERU (2022)- Hugh Bonneville CATEGORY: biography-autobiography
‘C’est vraiment un chef-d’oeuvre. C’est réellement toi qui l’as fait?’ would exclaim Lady Violet. Yes indeed, ‘Playing under the Piano’ is absolutely on the shelf alongside other great memoirs and tremendously showcases all the vivid steps of Hugh’s parabolic career (in his case, a curve that is thrown up into the air but doesn’t come down!).
Well, the admirable and intriguing ingredients of Bonneville’s masterpiece draw the essential portrait of this talented and determined actor. Actually, his memoir is so strictly linked to the artistic events of his life like in a fil rouge that, in the end, he seems to be somebody you would be happy to know. The sublime allure of the balance between the structure and the emotional content is that it skilfully humanizes what it’s to be a famous movie star: all the pages of this book are extremely able to wring out the reader’s tired heart and work together very efficiently revealing the deepest and sincerest soul of the author.
In his own unique and funny style, he displays all the actors, the divas (the generation of legendary dames Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Shirley MacLaine) and the exquisite animals (a labrador and a bear) he has worked with and give us a genuine exploration of his soul about the happiest and the gravest situations.
But why this bizarre title?
And a single image popped into my mind: me under the upright piano near the bay window, wearing a green painting smock, looking like Christopher Robin in a drawing by Shepard. Was I hiding under the piano? Or was I just playing? […] The teacher had asked me to do something in front of the class […] And I am terrified of having to do something in front of the dozen or so other boys and girls […] Maybe the terror that’s gripping me there beneath the piano has more to do with looking like a green meringue than performing […] The instinct to keep it in the shadows, this acting lark, just playing under the piano for fear of looking a fool, yoked to the thrill of stepping into the spotlight in character, as someone ‘other’ (and certainly more interesting) than me, and, by doing so, sharing stories with others.’
Finally, several years later, his career is at its zenith, Hugh is ‘au bout de sa carrière’:
The première in New York the next day went well. For the first time ever the Downton Abbey audience, which for years had consisted of individuals, couples or at most small groups in front of a TV screen, now consisted of hundreds and hundreds of people sharing the experience as one big…well, it felt like family. […] ‘Let’s never forget this’ Allen smiled in the darkness.’
THROUGH MY EYES:
As a musician, I’ve been listening to several songs and compositions for decades and I definitely believe that everyone can be pointed out by a song. In effect melodies give us emotions and deep sensations coming from the heart of their composer, so that they reflect his personality and touch our soul. This amazing game of invisible elements create a strong and emotional link between the composer’s soul and those who are attending his performance. Thus this autobiography reminds me of The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, a piece from G.F. Haendel’s Oratorio Solomon, 1748. Sheba was renowned for her cleverness and intelligence, a potential equal to Solomon the wise. Moreover Sheba means promise and Hugh is a promise of success, but also a man full of unexpected surprises (like in Downton Abbey series 1 episode 1 when Lord Grantham changes his mind and chases the car leaving with Mr Bates).
That’s all. I read this memoir thanks to ‘Life in Film Podcasts’ so I’m truly grateful to Elliot James Langridge and his amazing work, always a source of inspiration.
written by Downton Gazette, cultural website
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